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Employee Stories

Katherine’s story

May 8, 2018
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Headshot of CCA Nurse Katherine

Katherine A. wanted to become a nurse so that she could be “hands-on” in caring for her patients. She started out as a licensed practical nurse, continued with her studies to become a registered nurse, and then obtained the master’s degree required to be a nurse practitioner.

Katherine joined CCA in 2015 as a mobile nurse practitioner. She loves her work because she’s a “jack of all trades” responsible for medical assessments, providing home-based primary care, prescribing medication, liaising with medical specialists, coordinating health outreach services, and more. She considers her CCA role to be a “dream job,” so different from her previous nursing work where she saw patients briefly in a hospital or doctor’s office.

Helping a member overcome a seemingly “insurmountable” challenge

Since 2016, Katherine has been the care manager (“care partner”) for a CCA One Care member called “John” in this story to protect his privacy. When Katherine met John, he weighed over 500 pounds and wanted to work on weight loss. With Katherine’s support, John was determined to lower his health risks from obesity, and he lost about 70 pounds. At that time, he was diagnosed with diabetes, a condition that had likely been developing for some time. John was very upset but he didn’t give up on his determination to become healthier. As Katherine reports, John did “an amazing job at controlling his diabetes” through nutrition and medication. He lost even more weight, about 30 pounds, enough to meet the requirements to get approved for gastric bypass surgery.

In the beginning of their care partnership, Katherine saw John weekly, or even twice a week, but was later able to meet his needs by visiting him at home about once a month. When needed, she also goes to his clinic visits at a community health center, where she says “he has all these people cheering him on in his weight-loss efforts.” Katherine continues to coordinate John’s healthcare services, which include visits from a personal care attendant arranged through CCA. With her support, John is controlling his diabetes as he waits for his bypass surgery.

Katherine says that her close and supportive relationship with John describes her work with many other CCA members. Helping people meet health challenges that had previously seemed “insurmountable” is fulfilling, and she enjoys going to patients’ homes and really getting to know them and their needs.

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